Whole Wheat Bread

This recipe is my Mother-in-law's and it's really yummy.  I was not a fan of whole wheat bread, but this bread is delicious.  I've been grinding my own wheat whenever I make it to use fresh flour and this is becoming a weekly thing.  My girls and husband LOVE bread and this is turning out much cheaper than bread from the store.  Hope you like the recipe as much as we do.

Note:  I usually only make half of this recipe and make 5 small loaves

Mix together:

7 cups   whole wheat flour

2 tbsp yeast

5 cups warm water

1 1/2 cups powdered milk

Once those ingredients are mixed, cover your bowl and let rest for 10 minutes.  You'll see that the dough will start to rise up a bit.

After 10 minutes add the following to your mix:

2/3 cup oil

2/3 cup honey

2 tbsp dough enhancer

1 cup Vital Wheat Gluten

4 cups flour

2 tbsp salt

Mix for 10 minutes

Let rise, punch down.  Let rise.  Use oil instead of flour to make loaves.  Makes 5 large loaves or 10 small loaves.  Once you've rolled and placed your loaves in the pans, cover and let rise.  Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes.  Enjoy!

Healthy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

So the other day I was really craving some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.  Unfortunately, I felt a little guilty making them after looking at the ingredients and seeing how much sugar it called for.  Since I really badly wanted the cookies, I went online to see if I could find a "healthier" version of these cookies.  Lucky for me I found a recipe and I LOVED the result.  The recipe called for very little sugar and whole wheat flour.  I had just made some whole wheat bread early that day, so I had freshly ground flour on hand. 

The recipe is from a blog called "a foodie stays fit: a tale of two loves" and the recipe can be found by clicking here HERE, or just scroll down below.

Healthy Pumpkin Cookies That Don’t Taste Healthy

RECIPE

• 1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 egg
• 1 Tbs. vanilla
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. milk
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Combine pumpkin, sugar, applesauce, egg and vanilla and mix well (we’ll call this the WET mixture)
3. Combine by whisking: flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt in a separate bowl (aka DRY mixture)
4. Dissolve baking soda in milk, then add to WET mixture
5. Gradually add DRY mixture to WET and mix until just combined
6. Fold in chocolate chips
7. Grease cookie sheet and use an ice cream scoop to measure out
8. Bake for 10-12 minutes until they no longer look wet
9. Let sit on pan for 2 minutes then remove to a wire rack to cool

They really are delicious and don't taste healthy at all!!!!!   Enjoy!